The abiotic and biotic environment together predict plant, mammal, and bird diversity and turnover across the United States

The distribution of taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional biodiversity results from a combination of abiotic and biotic drivers which are scale dependent. Parsing the relative influence of these drivers is critical to understanding the processes underlying species assembly and generating predictions of biodiversity across taxonomic groups and for novel sites. However, doing so requires data that capture a spatial extent large enough to reflect broad-scale dynamics such as speciation and biogeography, and a spatial grain fine enough to detect local-scale dynamics like environmental filtering and biotic interactions. We used species inventories of vascular plants, birds, and mammals collected by the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) at 38 terrestrial field sites, to explore the processes underlying taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity and turnover. We found that, for both species richness (alpha-diversity) and turnover (beta-diversity), taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity are weak proxies for one-another, and thus may capture different species assembly processes. All diversity metrics were best predicted by a combination of abiotic and biotic variables. Taxonomic and phylogenetic richness tended to be higher at warmer, wetter sites, reflecting the role energy inputs play in driving broad-scale diversity. However, plant diversity was negatively correlated with bird phylogenetic and mammal functional diversity, implying trait conservation in plant communities may limit niche availability for consumer species. Equally, turnover in bird and mammal species across sites were associated with plant turnover. That the biodiversity of one taxon is predictive of another across these North American sites, even when controlling for environment, supports a role for the cross-clade biotic environment in driving species assembly.

From the Formation of the Earth to the Establishment of Luka

The article discusses successive stages in the evolution of life up to the establishment of the prokaryotic cell emphasizing the transitions from pre-biotic environment to organic precursors, pre-RNA-RNA, RNA-proteins-DNA, DNA-LUCA. They are paired with the development of pre-biotic structural progenitors of a cell - micelles, vesicles, protocells, prokaryotic ancestor, two prokaryotic branches – Eubacteria and Archaebacteria. The driving force is the natural selection (chemical, biochemical and biological), maintaining the correspondence between the emerging structures and their environment.

Environmental Transformation and the Current State of Hydrogeological Condition in the Wojkowice Area—Southern Poland

Based on the analysis and interpretation of maps, remote sensing data published in the literature, and environmental reconnaissance, this article discusses environmental transformations in the Wojkowice area in southern Poland (up to the year 2020). A comprehensive analysis was carried out concerning spatial development, mining activity, hydrogeological conditions and the biotic environment. The current state of the hydrogeological conditions was also characterized. Mining activity in the vicinity of the studied town caused significant changes in its relief, which contributed to its area dropping by about 5 m. In fact, these terrain forms are overgrown by various forms of vegetation that colonized these areas both naturally and as a result of forest reclamation. The contemporary vegetation of Wojkowice differs from the potential natural vegetation, which is an indicator of the complete anthropogenization of the natural environment. Over 100 years of industrial activity in Wojkowice has also contributed to a strong transformation of the groundwater. There has been a quantitative depletion of usable groundwater in the Triassic and Carboniferous formations. With inflows to the ore mines of up to 17 m3/min, the groundwater table has dropped by more than 60 m. The aquifer of Muschelkalk has been practically drained. At present, wells extract the waters from the Röth aquifer. There has been a major transformation of groundwater chemistry. The waters of the Triassic carbonate complex are anthropogenically transformated and are characterized by increased mineralization, multi-ionic types and usually with a quality class III and IV, and, therefore, they require some treatment.

Infectious and parasitic diseases of phytophagous insect pests in the context of extreme environmental conditions

The density of phytophagous insect pest populations is related (directly and indirectly) to several groups of factors that can be broadly divided into: abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic. Each extreme in the abiotic environment at a macro-level leads to a series of consecutive extremes in the biotic environment, which eventually results in micro-level responses in the individual organisms. The manifestation of factors acts in aggregate or in a sequence, creating a chain of processes around us. Insects very efficiently use the abundance of nutritional resources, resulting in a tremendous increase in their population density, and triggering control mechanisms through the emergence of parasitic and pathogenic infections (viruses, bacteria, fungi, microsporidia, protozoa and nematodes). The development of entomopathogenic infections in host populations is directly dependent on the characteristics of both the antagonist and the insect. It is associated with the lifestyle and life cycle of the insect, with features encoded in the mechanism of pathogen action, and limited by the pathogen’s virulence and pathogenicity.

Experimental Evolution in Plant-Microbe Systems: A Tool for Deciphering the Functioning and Evolution of Plant-Associated Microbial Communities

In natural environments, microbial communities must constantly adapt to stressful environmental conditions. The genetic and phenotypic mechanisms underlying the adaptive response of microbial communities to new (and often complex) environments can be tackled with a combination of experimental evolution and next generation sequencing. This combination allows to analyse the real-time evolution of microbial populations in response to imposed environmental factors or during the interaction with a host, by screening for phenotypic and genotypic changes over a multitude of identical experimental cycles. Experimental evolution (EE) coupled with comparative genomics has indeed facilitated the monitoring of bacterial genetic evolution and the understanding of adaptive evolution processes. Basically, EE studies had long been done on single strains, allowing to reveal the dynamics and genetic targets of natural selection and to uncover the correlation between genetic and phenotypic adaptive changes. However, species are always evolving in relation with other species and have to adapt not only to the environment itself but also to the biotic environment dynamically shaped by the other species. Nowadays, there is a growing interest to apply EE on microbial communities evolving under natural environments. In this paper, we provide a non-exhaustive review of microbial EE studies done with systems of increasing complexity (from single species, to synthetic communities and natural communities) and with a particular focus on studies between plants and plant-associated microorganisms. We highlight some of the mechanisms controlling the functioning of microbial species and their adaptive responses to environment changes and emphasize the importance of considering bacterial communities and complex environments in EE studies.

Protective host-dependent antagonism among Pseudomonas in the Arabidopsis phyllosphere

The plant microbiome is a rich biotic environment, comprising numerous taxa. The community structure of these colonizers is constrained by multiple factors, including host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions, as well as the interplay between the two. While much can be learned from pairwise relationships between individual hosts and microbes, or individual microbes with themselves, the ensemble of interrelations between the host and microbial consortia may lead to different outcomes that are not easily predicted from the individual interactions. Their study can thus provide new insights into the complex relationship between plants and microbes. Of particular importance is how strain-specific such plant-microbe-microbe interactions are, and how they eventually affect plant health. Here, we test strain-level interactions in the phyllosphere between groups of co-existing commensal and pathogenic Pseudomonas among each other and with A. thaliana, by employing synthetic communities of genome-barcoded isolates. We found that commensal Pseudomonas prompted a host response leading to a selective inhibition of a specific pathogenic lineage, resulting in plant protection. The extent of plant protection, however, was dependent on plant genotype, indicating that these effects are host-mediated. There were similar genotype-specific effects on the microbe side, as we could pinpoint an individual Pseudomonas isolate as the predominant cause for this differential interaction. Collectively, our work highlights how within-species genetic differences on both the host and microbe side can have profound effects on host-microbe-microbe dynamics. The paradigm that we have established provides a platform for the study of host-dependent microbe-microbe competition and cooperation in the A. thaliana-Pseudomonas system.

Exogenous RNA as a Regulatory Signal during a Plant’s Interaction with the Biotic Environment: An Evolutionary Perspective and Future Applications in Agriculture

Environmental RNAi (eRNAi) is a sequence-specific regulation of endogenous gene expression in a responsive organism by exogenous RNA. While exogenous RNA transfer between organisms of different kingdoms of life have been unambiguously identified in nature, our understanding of the biological significance of this phenomenon remains obscure, particularly within an evolutionary context. During the last decade multiple reports utilizing various mechanisms of natural eRNAi phenomena have been attempted to develop new agricultural traits and products including weed, disease and insect control. Although these attempts yielded mixed results, this concept remains extremely attractive for many agricultural applications. To better utilize eRNAi for practical applications, we would like to emphasize the necessity of understanding the biological significance of this phenomenon within an evolutionary context and learn from nature by developing advanced tools to identify and study new cases of exogeneous RNA transfer and eRNAi. In this opinion article we would like to look at the exogeneous RNA transfer from an evolutionary perspective, propose that new cases of exogeneous RNA transfer still remain to be identified in nature, and address a knowledge gap in understanding the biological function and significance of RNA transfer. We believe such approach may eventually result in a more successful use of this phenomenon for practical applications in agriculture.

Ecolexicone and Morphology in Mandailing Agriculture Community

This study aimed to analyze the ecolexicon and morphology by typology in the community of Mandailing (BM) agriculture. Qualitative methods were used. Data were collected using several stages such as interviews, self-examination, documenting and note-taking. The study was carried out in areas where income was dominated by farming, precisely in South Tapanuli Regency. The results showed that the biotic environment in the lexicon was 36 or around 70.5%, and the abiotic environment was 15 or around 29.5%. The typology of words was dominated by nominal (39), verbs (7), and adjectives (2). Based on the exposure to ecolexicon forms and typologies found in the Mandailing language, several conclusions can be drawn: the lexicon found in BM has affixations such as prefixes (si-); there are other prefixes (ma-, mam-, mar-, mang-); and the suffix form (-on) is often used to express farming activities, when associated with nouns, which is an activity that is carried out to indicate the type of rice and banana. The main reason for the loss of the lexicon is that many traditional activities have been replaced by modern means. Keywords: Ecolinguistic, Mandailing, Community Agriculture

Medicago-Sinorhizobium-Ralstonia a model system to investigate pathogen triggered inhibition of nodulation

How plants deal with beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms and how they can tolerate beneficial ones and face to pathogens in the same time are questions that remain puzzling to plant biologists. Legume plants are good models to explore those issues as their interactions with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, rhizobia, results in a drastic and easy to follow phenotype of nodulation. Intriguingly, despite massive and chronic infection, legumes defense reactions are essentially suppressed during the whole symbiotic process rising the question about a potential negative effect of plant immune responses on the establishment of nodulation. In the present study, we used the model legume, Medicago truncatula, co-inoculated with a mutualistic and with a phytopathogenic bacteria, Sinorhizobium medicae and Ralstonia solanacerarum. We show that the presence of R. solanacearum drastically inhibits the nodulation process. The type three secretion system (TTSE) of R. solanacearum, that is important for the inhibition of PAMP (Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns) triggered immunity (PTI), strongly contributes to inhibit nodulation. Thus, our results question the negative effect of PTI on nodulation. By including a pathogenic bacterium in the interaction system, our study provides a new angle to address the influence of the biotic environment on the nodulation process.

Implementation of tree species strategy during progressive successions

On the example of regeneration succession in forests, the features of silvicultural properties of the main forest-forming species growing in oak forests of the Middle Volga region are considered. The conclusion is made about the predominance of pioneer-serial forest communities formed by pioneer species in the study area. The pioneer species, which differ significantly in their silvicultural properties from the so-called «primary forest species», are predominant in modern forests. It is shown that at the later stages of reforestation successions, pioneer-serial forest communities are of great importance, the productivity of which becomes stable. The incomplete nature of progressive successions in the surveyed forests was revealed. To restore primary forests, a set of additional measures is required to facilitate the forests reconstruction and the entire forest fund of the region. The mass destruction of forests influences the processes of forest growing conditions and it is determined as a topical issue for further study. The connection between changes in the main forest species and forest communities and changes in forest growing conditions has been established. It is indicated that deforestation massively destroys the biotic environment and alters environmental processes, being the reason for silvicultural properties change in forest plants and their communities. The development of silvicultural properties is adaptive, in this regard, deforestation, with massive destruction of the biotic environment and a corresponding change in environmental processes, contributes to the devlopment of properties inherent in pioneer-serial forest communities. With the degradation of primary forests, a change in the main forest species and forest communities that make up modern forests is noted. Many silvicultural properties inherent in primary forests are not developed in modern conditions. Instead of primary forests, secondary forests are spread, derivative, with other silvicultural properties and their mdevelopment in the form of a complex characteristic of behavior or life strategy. The properties manifested by forest communities and individual species need to be generalized for further research. We have proposed to combine all the properties of forests into the concept of information potential. The information potential of forests can be used to study the features of the silvicultural properties in a changing natural environment.